‘I, Tonya’ Bets on Some Oscar Nominations With December Release Date

I, Tonya charmed audiences and critics at this year’s TIFF, and, as biopics are wont to do, is gunning for some awards season recognition. The Margot Robbie-starring dramatization of Tonya Harding’s figure skating career and fall from grace is both hilarious and devastating, and will hit theaters in an awards-qualifying limited release on December 8.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, I, Tonya will skate into New York and Los Angeles on that date to qualify for the Oscars, and will open wide sometime later in 2018. Our Oliver Whitney loved the film, calling it “a blisteringly funny and sympathetic portrait of the Olympian” with a performance from Robbie that is “outstanding.” It’s not the kind of take you’d expect from a biopic, but then again this isn’t a traditional biopic, opting instead for a kind of absurdist dark humor to tell the crazy story of that knee-whacking scandal.

There was plenty of buzz out of Toronto about both Robbie’s performance and that of Allison Janney, who plays Harding’s stone-cold, terrifying mother. Hopefully, with the movie opening in the next few months, a trailer for it won’t be far behind.